A JOURNEY THROUGH THE HALLS OF HELL by Pastor Danny Castle

A red-hot needful sermon by Pastor Danny Castle on the reality of Hell.

The Word of God describes Hell as a PLACE of tormentuous suffering, and agony. In Mark 9:43,44 Jesus warned of the danger of being cast "...into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." In Matthew 8:11-12, Jesus prophecies of the future time when He shall return to set up His earthly Kingdom. Christ will gather the nations together in Jerusalem, and there will be a judgment. The saved (sheep) will be separated from the unsaved (goats). The saved will enter into the Millennial Kingdom of Heaven.. "And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Concerning the unsaved, Jesus said... "But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This describes Hell--a place of DARKNESS, WEEPING, and GNASHING OF TEETH. Oh! How horrible! We are warned by God in 2nd Thessalonians 1:8, "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." How much clearer could the Bible, God's Word, be concerning the reality and indescribable suffering of a literal Hell?

The Word of God teaches that those presently in Hell will one day be delivered before The Great White Throne of Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15), judged according to their works, sentenced, and then finally cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity. There are 3 different Greek meanings for the English word "Hell" in the New Testament. Hades always refers to the present place of Hell, and Gehenna always refers to the Lake of Fire. In Revelation 20:14, it says that Hades was cast into Gehenna, or ... Hell was cast into the Lake of Fire. Thus, if you die in your sins without the blood of Jesus having taken your sins away, you WILL BE CAST INTO GEHENNA! This doom is the second death. So if you're born ONCE, you die TWICE; but if you're born TWICE, then you only die ONCE. Ye must be born again!

The worst thing about the Lake of Fire won't be the flames of torment, the darkness, the gnashing of teeth, or the screams of the damned. No, the worst thing about Hell will be that it NEVER ENDS! The second death is irreversible. A lot of believers mistake the second death for spiritual death. The truth is that you are ALREADY spiritually dead if you haven never been born-again. If you die in your sins without Christ, then you will be cast into the lake of Fire, which is the second death (Revelation 21:8). Even after one trillion years (i.e., 1,000,000,000,000 years!), your eternity in the flames and torments of Hell won't even have begun. Think about that for a moment, please! Are you willing to risk spending all eternity, WITHOUT END, burning in the flames of Hell? Why would you take such a chance?

I hear unsaved people bragging that they want to go to Hell to party. I can assure you that no one will be enjoying Hell even in the least degree! Hell will be a place of God's flaming vengeance, because you deliberately rejected His free gift of eternal life (2nd Thessalonians 1:8). Romans 6:23 states... "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." I also think one of the most painful things about Hell is going to be the knowledge that you could have went to Heaven for FREE, but you arrogantly and defiantly spit in God's face by rejecting Christ as your Savior. Why go to Hell when you don't have to? Going to Heaven doesn't require you to live a religious life. You don't have to give up anything to be saved, not even your unbelief. In Mark 9:24 we read, "And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." The father had faith in spite of his doubt, and the Lord healed his son. I don't care how much doubt you may have, if you REPENT (i.e., turn) in your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, He will save you. How much faith do you need to be saved? ... just enough to obey the Gospel and trust upon the Lord, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." One of the worst things about Hell will be the awareness that you could have gone to Heaven simply by believing upon Jesus as your Savior, but you said "NO"! In John 14:6 Jesus adamantly declares, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." It's Jesus or Hell.

Please don't go to Hell. If you do, you will spend eternity there, with NO HOPE of escape--not today, not tomorrow, not 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years from now!!!!!!! And to think, you could have gone to Heaven, simply by placing your faith in Jesus, who shed His precious blood to take away all your sins... "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1st Peter 1:18,19). Will the Lake of Fire be your eternal doom?

"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." -Revelation 20:13-15